We don't want to conquer you or take your houses or jobs, Romania's top diplomat tells UK

Romanians do not want to “conquer” Britain or “take people’s jobs and houses”
once immigration restrictions are lifted next year, the country’s top
diplomat has said.

Ion Jinga, the Romanian Ambassador to London for the past five years, said that Britons need not fear a 'tsunami' or a second Eastern European 'invasion' when the current limits are lifted on December 31.Photo: Heathcliff O'Malley for the Telegraph

Ion Jinga, the Romanian Ambassador to London for the past five years, said that Britons need not fear a “tsunami” or a second Eastern European “invasion” when the current limits are lifted on December 31.

Ministers have repeatedly refused to give estimates on how many Romanians and Bulgarians will come to the UK when working restrictions are lifted.

Campaigners are wary about the numbers expected to come to the UK after the Labour Government completely under-estimated the number of Poles who came to live in Britain after the borders were opened in 2004.

Forecasts published on Thursday by MigrationWatch suggest 250,000 migrants from Bulgaria and Romania could head to the UK for work when restrictions are lifted.

MigrationWatch said 50,000 migrants a year for the next five years could try to come to settle in the UK, based on analysis of the numbers who came from Poland and other eastern European countries into the UK after 2004.

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But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Jinga suggested the number will be in the low tens of thousands, possibly as low as 10,000 a year, and nothing like the hundreds of thousands of Poles who came to live in the UK after 2004.

Mr Jinga said: “It is totally ungrounded to circulate in the media that hundreds of thousands of Romanians will come, it will be an invasion.

"‘They will take our jobs, they will take our houses’. Come on! If it was not related to real human beings I would consider it to be a joke.”

Asked if he had any estimates, Mr Jinga said: “Honestly no. But I believe that any fear or assumptions that a tsunami of Romanians and Bulgarians will come at the beginning of 2014 is unguarded and if it would not be such a serious matter I would smile, and I would take it as a joke.

“Some tabloids have said that in a year’s time 29 million Bulgarians and Romanians will invade, will conquer Britain. Why? Because we are 19million in Romania, and there are 10 million in Bulgaria.

“The entire population, it means that new born babies, and retired people of 80 years old will pack their luggage and come to Britain. You can take it as a joke but apparently some people are scared of such a possibility."

Mr Jinga said that the circumstances were different because in 2004 the only countries which opened their borders then were Ireland, Sweden and the UK.

In contrast, most other European Union countries had opened their borders to Romanians and Bulgarians well before Britain.

Over the past seven years figures based on applications for National Insurance numbers show that 100,000 Romanians have come to live in the UK.

Romania was not expecting huge numbers to come here and had already lost three million people to work in Italy, Spain and other EU states since 2004.

Mr Jinga said: “I don’t dare to make predictions because it could be two, three thousand, it could be 10,000, 20,000. We are just speculating. It is impossible to be 100,000 or 50,000, when 100,000 over seven years when it was the boom. It is over.

"We have already reached out export capacity for labour force… who wanted to emigrate already did it. Those who wanted to come to Britain – they did it.

“I can prove it – seven years ago our population was about 22million inhabitants, the Census of 2011 proved that we are just 19million.

“We have not lost three million overnight but in Spain, Italy, France, Germany – we have almost three million people living and working abroad."

Mr Jinga insisted there would be no pressure “on the housing system and the social housing sector” in the UK from Romanians

He said: “Last year at the Olympics London received two million tourists and there was no danger for homeless or housing shortage.”

He said that 70 per cent of the 100,000 Romanians in the UK were “aged between 18 and 35 years old and were economically active without any need to rely on benefits.

“They came to work as self-employed and they earn their lives and rent or buy a house. They do not ask for social housing.”

Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said this week that migrants from the two countries arriving next year “will cause problems”.

“Given that we’ve got a housing shortage, any influx from Romania and Bulgaria is going to cause problems,” Mr Pickles told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has previously indicated she is keen to press for an end to the free movement of EU workers.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are working closely with other government departments to look at the pull factors that may encourage EU nationals, including those from Bulgaria and Romania, to come to the UK.

“The government has made clear it will always apply transitional controls on new EU member states and will continue work to cut out abuse of free movement.”